Pope Francis' prayer for humanity: The crisis is a test of solidarity and a reminder of fundamental values

(Patria) – Pope Francis held an extraordinary prayer on St. Peter's Square on Friday, telling the world to view the crisis as a test of solidarity and a reminder of fundamental values.

- A heavy darkness has settled on our squares, streets and cities, the Pope said as he stood completely alone on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica facing an empty, rain-soaked square, beginning an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing that he usually delivers twice a year.

- It grips our lives, filling everything with deafening silence and a troubling emptiness that, as it passes, stops everything around; we feel it in the air... We are frightened and lost, the Pope said.

The Vatican called the service 'Extraordinary prayer in a time of pandemic'. Just minutes earlier, Italian authorities announced that the total death toll from the infection in Italy had surpassed 9,000.

The Pope walked in the rain towards the covered steps of the basilica and spoke while sitting alone before the empty square, which usually gathers tens of thousands of people.

- We realized that we are in the same boat, vulnerable and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us needing to comfort the other, the Pope said, adding that the virus has exposed human vulnerability 'towards those false and superficial securities around us that have made up our daily routines'.

He praised doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, hygiene and transport workers, police, and volunteers, noting that they 'are writing the decisive events of our time'.

He said that God asks everyone to 'wake up again and practice solidarity and hope that can give strength, support, and meaning to these hours of great tribulation'.

The Pope prayed in front of a wooden cross that is usually kept in a Roman church and was brought to the Vatican specifically for this extraordinary prayer.

According to tradition, the plague that hit Rome in 1522 began to recede after the cross was carried through the streets of the capital for 16 days that year, Reuters reported.